Iran Blames ‘US Zionists’ for Assassination of ‘Wrong Man’

Iran changed its report that a nuclear scientist was assassinated and now claims he was a student. Either way, “American Zionists” did it.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 7/24/2011, 11:32 AM

Iran has changed its original report that a nuclear scientist was assassinated and now claims the murdered man was a student. Either way, the Islamic Republic blames “American Zionists.”

Official Iranian media originally reported that two people on motorcycles shot and killed Prof. Darioush Rezainejad, at least the fourth nuclear scientist in Iran to have been killed or gone missing in the past two years. His wife was wounded.

Less than 24 hours after the report, official Iranian media claimed that the assassins targeted the wrong man and instead killed a student in electronics who was employed by the government in defense work.

Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Ari Larijani alleged, "Yesterday's US-Zionist terrorist act that targeted one of the elites of Iran is another instance demonstrating the US's hostility. Thus, the United States regards as allowable such acts in its sham global management.”

Whether Rezainejad was a student or professor, his death apparently was not an accident. His home was located close to the Islamic Republic’s intelligence headquarters, and Al Jazeera reported, "What is clear is that this is a huge blow to the country's intelligence units.”

Iranian spokesmen explained that the change in its report due to confusion caused by the victim’s name, which is similar to that of a professor whose family name is Rezaei.

Previous assassinations and mysterious deaths have been attributed to an Israeli-American attempt to interfere with Iran’s progress towards developing nuclear capability and posing an immediate threat to Israel in particular, and the entire Middle East in general.

Last November, two bombing attacks killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another.

In January 2010, a motorcyclist set off a remote-controlled bomb that killed a physicist.